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Suzanne Patles on Treaty Day in 2016 with her son. Patles received an eviction notice from her landlord in Eskasoni. Photo: Trina Roache/APTN

by Trina Roach, APTN National News, April 7, 2017

An eviction notice for a well-known Mi’kmaq warrior has her raising questions around housing security for people who rent apartments on reserve.

Suzanne Patles, a key figure in the 2013 fracking protests near Elsipogtog, NB, is a band member of the Eskasoni First Nation in Nova Scotia. She’s lived in the same apartment there for over 11 years, along with her partner and three sons. Read the rest of this entry →

Natural Resources Minister Jim Carr suggested Thursday Canada is prepared to deploy the military against anti-pipeline actions deemed “not to be peaceful,” raising the possibility the country could face a scenario last seen during the Oka Crisis in 1990. Read the rest of this entry →

Thirty-five of the 89 Indigenous activists secretly investigated and profiled by the RCMP as potential threats to public safety have ties to New Brunswick, a recently released document shows. Read the rest of this entry →

by APTN National News, December 7, 2015
New Brunswick’s top doctor was fired by the provincial Liberal government to clear the way for the lifting of a moratorium on shale gas exploration this spring, according to the leader of the provincial NDP.

Provincial NDP leader Dominic Cardy says a senior government source told him Eilish Cleary, New Brunswick’s now-fired chief medical officer, would stand in the way of a government decision to lift the moratorium. Read the rest of this entry →

Kenneth Francis, a member of the Elsipogtog First Nation, is planning on launching a legal challenge to prevent fracking on Aboriginal territory in New Brunswick. (Credit: Ann Pohl).

Inspired by the victory of B.C.’s Tsilhqot’in Nation, Kenneth Francis of New Brunswick’s Elsipogtog First Nation wants to lead his people into court

Vidya Kauri, Vancouver Observer, Mar 4th, 2015

Kenneth Francis was six when his father’s job-search experience became a lesson that would shape the rest of his life.

Circa 1950, Joseph Francis, a member of the Mi’kmaqs’ Elsipogtog First Nation, was travelling all over his native Kent County, New Brunswick to find a job. He came home ecstatic one evening because he had finally found work at a lumber mill on the Miramichi River. But the elation did not last long.

Trina Roache, APTN National News, Oct 16, 2014
The RCMP’s watchdog is looking into hundreds of complaints stemming from protests against fracking in New Brunswick late last year. The Mi’kmaq led the fight was against provincial government sanctioned shale gas exploration by SWN Resources Canada.

Calls to the Commission for Public Complaints against the RCMP started to roll in as far back as July, 2013. And when the RCMP raided a Mi’kmaq Warrior camp on the morning of Oct. 17, it triggered violent clashes with police. By the end of the day, RCMP snipers in camouflage with rifles were hiding in the tall grass, 40 people were arrested and six police cars were set on fire. Read the rest of this entry →

MONTREAL — Federal officials closely tracked the fallout of an RCMP raid on a First Nations protest against shale-gas exploration in New Brunswick, at one point raising concerns it could spawn another countrywide movement like Idle No More.

Documents obtained under access-to-information legislation reveal a lengthy email chain last fall monitoring events related to a blockade near Rexton, N.B., about 70 kilometres north of Moncton.

Annie Clair with her son, Junior, on his 21st birthday. (Photo: Shanelle Clair)

Hello, my name is Annie M. Clair. I was born and raised in Elsipogtog. I have four children and three grandchildren. (I am Junior (Germain) Breau’s mother.) I would like to share this with you: how it’s really been difficult to go sleep at nights and to think about my son in jail for such a long time. Read the rest of this entry →

Shale gas protesters and RCMP trying to enforce an injunction are clashing in Rexton, N.B., with the violence including two police vehicles that have been set on fire, and a report of the arrest of a First Nations chief [Update: at least 6 police vehicles have been torched and 40 arrested]. Read the rest of this entry →